It is well known in the automobile body arts to provide for the mounting of trays or other receptacles in the passenger compartment of an automobile to permit relatively stable support of items of food and drink and other small articles.
Some such trays or receptacles have been carried with storage structures known as floor consoles which are positioned between the two front seats of automobiles having bucket seats. Exemplary of such trays and receptacles are those disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,356,409 to Belsky et al, U.S. Pat. No. 3,110,397 to Peck et al, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,136,461 and 3,804,233 to Gregg, Jr., and U.S. Pat. No. 3,561,589 to Larkin.
Others have provided for the detachable securing of beverage trays and the like to other passenger compartment structures, such as the seats, as exemplified by U.S. Pat. No. 3,338,629 to Drees and U.S. Pat. No. 4,146,159 to Hemmen, or to the dashboard as exemplified by U.S. Pat. No. 4,286,742 to Pellegrino.
Among the deficiencies noted in all the prior art devices is that the article-carrying trays have used valuable interior space and usable surfaces in the passenger compartment to perform a function for which demand is intermittent. This deficiency is seen whether the article-carrying trays are included in auxiliary structures which by their nature consume otherwise useful space and surface or are integrally formed on existing structure such as floor consoles.